


Burned and Bound

by Anonymous



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: ? - Freeform, ??? - Freeform, Body Horror, F/F, Feel free to skip to after the page divider, Horror, I’m fucking done with this here you go if it’s bad it’s bad, I’m not sure if it counts but uh, Oh yeah the graphic depictions of violence tag is also very much ymmv so, Panic Attack, There’s happy stuff at the end, baby’s first panic attack, frankly I’m not proud of the beginning, if you want to skip whatever the hell’s going on in the middle, ig it is now lmfao, implicit child abuse, is Grometheus a character tag?, oh i should tag that, uhhhh there’s nothing like. awful but just to cover my bases it’s rated t, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:20:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27614750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Because fears are scarier when they’re real.(Amity makes the responsible decision to fight Grom herself, and it turns out way worse than it should’ve.)
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 7
Kudos: 80
Collections: Anonymous





	Burned and Bound

**Author's Note:**

> I thought of the title at 1 am while I was half-asleep and I thought it was clever at that time but it is once again 1 am except I just finished writing this after 5 hours of non-stop writing and uhhh 😬😬😬
> 
> Anyways shoutout to mizozoe on tumblr for giving me the initial idea even thought I went completely off the fucking rails with it, arxticfive for the literal 8 seconds of animation that made me write the one part at the end, edasnest/prinxlyart and sterling-jay for giving me something relevant to read while I wrote this, whoever noticed that the fireworks apparently have glyphs in them, Reinaeiry for her cover of Slow Dance With You, and AJJ for making the Body Terror Song, all of those things made this fanfic what it is so if you have a problem with it send them your grievances (THIS IS A JOKE. THESE PEOPLE MAKE GOOD CONTENT DO NOT BULLY THEM ON MY ACCOUNT OR EVER ASKKJSJSJS)

Grom queen. Of all the ways to have her crush on Luz exposed, it had to be a public spectacle.

Amity wasn’t scared, or at least, not of the actual monster. To be perfectly honest, she’d expected to be selected for Grom queen at some point. Edric and Emira would’ve certainly been selected if they weren’t such troublemakers. Fighting was no matter to her- she was strong, and clever, and a _Blight_.

But having literally everyone knowing that she liked Luz? The human? That a Blight was scared of being rejected? She’d be humiliated. And dead, by her parents if not by the damn thing itself.

It was stupid. This whole thing was stupid. She was being stupid, walking around in the woods, as if she could escape the inevitable consequences of being exposed to the entirety of Hexside, instead of training, because Blight or not, she was sure as hell going need it, and _why did they wait until this morning to tell her that she was going to fight tonight_ -

A stick came flying out of the foliage and smacked her directly on the head. Amity fell over, more from surprise than the actual impact, and landed directly into the swamp. Mud splattered all over her.

“Amity?”

She had just opened her eyes when a soft light suddenly appeared from between her and... Luz. Oh, the Titan must’ve truly had it out for her. Luz extended her hand to help her up. Amity took it and pulled herself up.

“And here I thought this day couldn’t get any worse,” she muttered, before setting herself down on a stump. Luz simply plopped herself on the mud next to her, and somewhere in her mind Amity noted that it would’ve been madly endearing if she wasn’t literally about to kill her.

“Did you talk to Bump? Was it as terrifying as you imagined?” Amity sighed.

“He said no.” It felt worse every time she had to think about it again. “I’m Grom queen, unless I can find a replacement. Who’d want to switch with me?”

There was dead silence.

“...I would.”

“...what?” It came out before she could even process what she just heard.

“Amity Blight, I’ll do it!” She did a dramatic walk in front of her, “I’ll take your place and face Grom in the arena. I’ll be your fearless champion!”

A spider crawled on her face, and Luz shrieked and immediately threw herself in the mud. She rolled around until she crashed into something in the distance. She shouted something, but it was muffled by mud.

“Luz!?”

Luz came running back after a bit.

“Ok, it’s gone.” She said.

“Are you sure?” Amity’s asked. Luz looked at her quizzically for a moment, before remembering what the’d been discussing.

“What? Of course!” She turned on her heels. “Imagine! The first human to defeat Grom!”

The first thing Amity really processed was gratitude. She shouldn’t have been surprised- of course Luz would do something so reckless and selfless. Wasn’t that how they met in the first place? And it wasn’t like she had any idea-

Oh.

_She had no idea._

Luz was blindly walking into this- Luz the human, ( _her_ human), happily offering to fight a nightmare monstrosity for her sake. She was in no way prepared for this. She was going to get injured, or-

She wouldn’t die, would she? The previous tributes had been injured, sometimes severely, and just the thought of that made her feel sick. But they never _died_ , for all that the students liked to joke about it.

But they had never been humans. Soft, magicless, naive humans, and her brain conjured up an image of Luz, crumpled up on the floor, motionless and stiff and pale and her entire chest suddenly felt hollow in the worst way possible-

“Amity?” Luz asked. Amity shook her head and wiped her mind of the thought. Luz looked at her curiously with that innocent expression on her face, and suddenly Amity realized something: Luz was not going to get hurt. Not on her watch.

“I... you can’t.”

“What?” Luz turned around and looked at her. Amity looked off to the side.

“I appreciate the offer Luz, but it’s dangerous. You can’t.” Luz scoffed.

“Hey! You think I can’t fight?”

“Yes.” Amity replied. She immediately wanted to smack herself for being so blunt, but it was necessary- she knew Luz.

“Oh, come on! You saw me at the Knee! I kicked butt there!” She did a silly mimicry of the fight they had against the slitherbeast.

“And we almost died!” Amity’s shouted. Luz looked stunned. Amity realized that she had jumped to her feet, and sat herself down again. She sighed and buried her face into her hands.

“I’m glad you want to help, Luz, I really am. But I- I can’t have you getting hurt on my behalf.” Luz seemed surprised. And then her face softened into a teasing grin, and she sat herself right next to Amity, nudging her arm with her elbow, “Aw, you _do_ care about me!” Amity’s pulled her head out of her hands.

“Luz, this is serious!”

“I am being serious!” Luz huffed, “I get injuries all the time for Willow and Gus, what’s one more?”

“That’s different.” Amity said. “They’re-“ her voice suddenly dropped to a mutter, “-you’re their friend-“

“...what?”

“-and-“

“Amity!” Luz grabbed her face with both hands, and somehow remained completely oblivious to her entire face going red. “Are you implying we’re not friends?”

“I, well...” she didn’t know what to say. Were they friends? It wasn’t that long ago that Amity was literally trying to ruin her life, and maybe kill her in the process. But between then and now, it felt like everything had changed. Of course Luz would want to be her friend, she’d want to befriend a rock, but...

Luz sighed and took her hands off.

“Look, I get it. Things are still kinda weird between us. But I’m not going to let you do this by yourself!” The whole thing- offering herself up as a sacrifice, the sheer determination, her mindless eagerness to help- well, she couldn’t help appreciating it, even if it did nothing for her.

“I- thank you.”

A sudden explosion sounded off in the distance. Amity started, and then cursed herself when she saw lights in the distance.

“Are those fireworks?” Luz asked.

“Is that what you call them?” She didn’t respond. Luz stared at them intently, squinting a bit.

“Are those _magic_ fireworks?” Luz shouted, eyes all starry. Almost on instinct, she pulled out a scrap of paper and a pen. Amity watched as she meticulously copied the sigil with astounding accuracy and speed. Something else to admire about her: the Emperor physically couldn’t lock off her magic. Of course she didn’t care for covens when that wasn’t even a concern.

Luz finished up her sigil and spent barely a moment committing it to memory before gently touching it with her fingers.

Somehow, neither of them anticipated the paper exploding in their faces. Amity fell over backwards in a rush to get away from it. Thankfully, the stump she’d been sitting on shielded her from the red-hot sparks bursting from the paper. Just as quickly as it had set off, it fizzled out. Amity laid stunned on the ground, before she suddenly remembered that Luz had been literally touching the paper.

“Luz!?”

Luz was sitting right where she’d been when she’d set off the spell, with a dazed look and a smattering of ash on her face, but otherwise no worse for wear.

“Wow.” She immediately pulled out another piece of paper, and Amity could see her redrawing the firework spell.

“Luz, do not-!”

“Hey, calm down. This is for later.”

“What could you possibly be doing with fireworks later!?”

“I don’t know! I could-“ Luz was suddenly stricken with a distant look in her eyes, “I could....”

“...Luz?” Luz blinked, shook her head, and then excitedly looked at her. She’d seen that look a million times, but something about seeing it for herself specifically made her heart race.

“Amity, I have a brilliant idea, don’t worry about anything, I have a great idea,” Which was, of course, probably the most worrying thing she could’ve possibly said.

“Luz, _what_?”

“Nothing! Don’t worry about it.” She waved it off.

“Luz, those spells aren’t good for combat.” She said.

“What? Oh, yeah, obviously. I mean, it kinda literally blew up in my face.”

“I can take care of Grom, you know,” she said, “It’s just... everyone seeing it.”

“Of course! But, hey, if you need my help...” she grinned cheekily.

“I appreciate the idea, Luz. But I’ll be fine.” Somehow, just saying those words and seeing Luz smiling at her made it true.

She’d be fine.  


* * *

She was not fine.

The stadium was _packed_ \- more so than usual, if that was even possible. Probably everyone was eager to either watch Grom get the worst beating of it’s life, or watch a Blight get swallowed whole. Prime entertainment either way.

If she thought she was scared before, she was straight up panicking now- about everyone seeing her fears, about Luz and Edric and Emira and Boscha and what in the Titan were they going to think after that, about the fight itself, which she hadn’t been remotely worried about before, so why the fear setting in _now_ -

“Amity?” Luz’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Amity’s focus suddenly shifted on the figure in front of her.

“You look good. Strange but... good.” She wasn’t even lying. Luz was wearing some bizarre mix of a tuxedo and... something. Amity was vaguely sure she’d heard the HAC talking about it before.

“Are you alright?” Luz asked.

“There’s so many people,” she said. It was meant to be a flat statement of fact, but her voice wavered as she spoke. Amity wanted to smack herself.

“Amity, I’m sure it’ll be fine. You’re one of the best witches I know! Besides, I’m sure everyone in there’s scared of, I don’t know, snakes or something.”

Despite herself Amity laughed, and Luz smiled sheepishly. Amity wasn’t exactly convinced, but... she was fine. Reality had snapped back into place for her, around Luz and her misplaced confidence. She turned around so she was facing the gym again.

There was nothing to worry about. Amity was going to win. She had to, because she was a Blight, and if she didn’t the whole Boiling Isles would be in troubled and it’s be her fault, and if she failed this one minor task and her parents caught wind of it, there would be nothing left for her, if there was even anything left _of_ her-

She closed her eyes. Took a deep breath. In. Out.

Amity was fine.

She opened her eyes. There was nothing more she could do now anyways. Maybe she could destroy it before it could transform?

“Hey, Luz do you think I could-?”

Luz was gone.

Of course she was gone, she had to go watch it with everyone else. Amity felt her heart sink, but then, what was she expecting? She shook her head. _Stop it_.

Amity walked into the gym to a hundred eyes watching her every move. She felt herself straighten her back, forcing an air of dignity into her steps. Her heart was racing, and she willed it still.

“-and here’s your Grom queen, Amity Blight!”

All at once, the low buzz of the crowd suddenly rose into a deafening roar. It wasn’t any louder, it was just more. Amity’s eyes flitted between everyone in the crowd. Against her will, her mind started putting names to faces.

Amity watched with sickly dread as Gus slammed the button that would release Grom. The ground beneath her trembled as the floor in front of her split down the middle, revealing the arena beneath the school. The floor shuddered as it locked into place.

Almost perfectly in tandem, an explosion sounded out from elsewhere in the school, and this time the building itself shook with enough force to almost knock Amity off her feet. The doors slammed open behind her, and Amity turned around to see Luz, disheveled, covered in ashes with a panicked look on her face.

“Luz!?”

“ _The school is on fire!_ ”

Everyone stared at her, bewildered. The ground shook again, and a blinding flash of light came spilling into the gym out of the Healing track’s hallway. When it faded out, a chunk of the the hall was already wrapped in flames. The snaggleback must’ve fallen off at some point, because as soon as the explosion receded, the gym went completely dark. It was like a switch- everyone immediately came to their feet at the second explosion, scrambling to leave. A voice belatedly came over the intercom telling the students to evacuate.

Amity stared in shock as the gym practically emptied itself. She felt a hand wrap around her arm and turned to look.

A small ball of light floated above Luz, who was kneeled over from exhaustion, one hand grabbing her wrist for support as she gasped for air. Amity pulled her up by the shoulders.

“Luz! Are you okay?” Luz continued panting for a solid minute before responding:

“You ever notice that the potions hallway is really, _really_ far from the gym?”

Oh. _Oh_.

Amity... didn’t know how to feel.

“I... Luz, I didn’t think you’d actually- this is-“

“Yeah, no problem-!”

“-you _really_ shouldn’t have set the school on fire.”

“Oh, that?” Luz waved it off with a laugh, “The fire’s fake.”

“The- what?”

Luz motioned at the distant flames from the other side of the school. Amity looked, and it sudden came to her all at once- the flames were brighter than possible, unnaturally colored at parts, and they didn’t burn anything so much as they went _through_ them. Small, irrelevant details that would likely slip the mind of anyone who didn’t spend their whole childhood being tormented by siblings on the Illusion track.

Wait.

“Where’s Edric and Emira-?”

“They’re fine! Payback for the library incident and all that. They’re making the fire, which is totally fake.”

The potions hallways suddenly went off, in small bursts of flame and liquid spewing out the windows as fire caught onto them.

“...mostly fake. But hey, it’ll be convincing when we tell Principal Bump!”

Amity opened her mouth, and then simply shut it and nodded sheepishly. There wasn’t anything she could possibly say to express everything she was feeling. Luz seemed to understand well enough, judging from the estatic grin she gave her.

“Alright! You ready to actually face Grom?”

Right. That what she was here for, and fire or no, she had to defeat it. Amity gave what she hoped was a confident grin.

“I’ll be fine now.” She honestly meant it, too. Luz beamed, wished her luck, and she was off before Amity suddenly remembered that she’d forgotten to thank her in between all the chaos.

A low growl came out from the bottom of the arena. Amity shook her head. She could thank her later. This was now.

She made her way down to the arena. It was strange, descending down the stairs. She’d always imagine if (when) she fought Grom, it’d be to thunderous applause and rabid cheering from the other students. There was nothing but silence and her own echoing footsteps.

Amity cautiously made her way to the center. Eerie silence filled the air like thick smoke. She found herself looking around when she reached the center.

“...hello?”

A shadow came darting out of the floor. Amity barely moved out of the way in time, and it passed through the spot where she was, landing onto the floor on the other side of her. Adrenaline suddenly kicked in.

“You can’t get me that easily!” She shouted. It rose out of the ground and pulled itself into an uncanny human shape. Its head was unnaturally skewed to the side, and parts of it slipped onto it’s arms and dripped onto the floor.

A shadowy arm came flying out towards her. Amity pulled up an abomination from beneath her, and the shadow wrapped around it, crushing it and destroying itself in the process. Amity jumped off as they both exploded into viscous puddles on the floor. Another spell, and vines came flying out of the walls, catching her before she fell. It snaked around the perimeter of the arena.

It was honestly _exhilarating_ flying literal circles around Grom. It glared at her with red daggers for eyes. Amity shot off multiple bursts of fire with ease. They went flying everywhere, knocking down the pillars holding up the gym floor, burning through him when it hit, searing through the walls of the arena when it didn’t.

It finally relented, sinking through the floor and out of sight. She couldn’t see where he was. Amity pulled the vines downward, and jumped to the ground when it came close. She paced around the center.

“Hiding? I didn’t expect that from you.”

It was silent once again, save for the occasional crumbling of marble where she’d misfired. A low, droning voice came echoing off the walls.

”You’re quite strong for a witch of your age.” Amity’s body tensed at the sound.

“Flattery won’t save you.” She snarked. Her eyes scanned the room.

Something twitched audible behind her, and on sheer instinct she turned around, spell already half-drawn.

It was Luz.

They stood, stared, silent and tense.

“Hello, Amity.”

It was not Luz. Shadows floated out of its side, still coalescing itself into her form. The voice was an almost perfect mimicry, but it was empty of all the emotion in Luz’s voice.

“You’re not real.” Amity said flatly, before shooting off her spell. Shards of ice flew out. It melted back into the floor and vanished, and the ice stuck itself into the wall behind.

“Oh, _I’m_ not real,” Luz’s voice said from next to her, and in an instant Amity was on the ground. Shadows pulled her to the floor by her arms and legs, and for a second some irrational part of her mind insisted she was going to sink and drown. Grom stood in front of her.

“But Luz?” It asked, “You think Luz would want to go to Grom with you?”

It was fake, she knew, but it was still painful, hearing those words in her voice and seeing it come from her visage.

“Maybe I could if you’d die already!” Amity shouted. She drew a small circle, and a hand came out of the floor and towards Grometheus. Amity immediately felt the shadows loosen their grip as it made impact, and she quickly scampered to her feet.

“Really now? You think she likes you?” It asked. A cruel grin twisted her features. “Amity Blight, the cruel, cutthroat witch?”

Amity summoned a full abomination this time. It set on Grom, slamming the ground where it stood, sometimes hitting and sometimes narrowly missing. She shot fire at it when her abomination missed, and it had trouble dodging both simultaneously. Its form was slowly falling apart, as was its voice, and Amity decided to quickly be rid of it so she didn’t have to watch as Luz was crushed _over and over_.

“Why would she want you around? You almost killed her-“

“I didn’t!”

“-Why do you think she ‘helped’ you? She _cheered_ when you were selected-‘

“She’s human! She doesn’t know any better!”

“-and you almost gave her up to save yourself. How kind.”

Amity’s composure was falling apart. It was getting to her, Luz’s body getting flattened against the floor into nauseating pools that too closely resembled blood in the darkness and fire. She was now missing more often than she was landing hits.

“You hurt her friends, you know. Her _real_ friends.”

“I-“ she should’ve stopped. She shouldn’t have been talking to the thing to start with, but she had no answer, wouldn’t have if it really was Luz, “I apologized! I helped her fix Willow! I-“

“You _want_ to be her friend. You have power, prestige, of course the lowly human has no choice but to play along-“

“ _ **Don’t fucking call her that!**_ ”

Impulse took over. She drew up a large spell circle, and a massive burst of fire came flying out. She couldn’t see what happened next, because the room was suddenly saturated in blinding light.

When it finally faded, there was a large smoldering spot of black on the floor.

“Darling,” it crowed from behind, and she was already facing it with another spell ready at her fingertips, “You think you love this human so much.”

Something about the voice unnerved it more than it did earlier.

“Why?” Amity froze. That wasn’t Luz’s voice anymore, that was-

“Amity.” It reformed in a humanoid shape, and she could already see what it was going to become. “You have me. You have your father. Why associate with some piddling _human_ -“

The fire hit her squarely in the face. Horror overwhelmed her body as she watched her mother’s head melt. She tried to move, but it felt like her body was locked in its place.

“You’re not real!”

“And your mother is better?” It asked. It’s face reformed again. It was sickening, hearing that awful voice, the one she only used when _controlling_ her, “You think you can freely mingle with some human girl? That there won’t be consequences for her?”

“They wouldn’t know! They don’t have to!”

“You think your human pet matters more than us!?” It shifted its form again, melded into some sick, twisted amalgamation of both her parents, and she could hear her father, now, too, “Amity. You know better. You cannot-“

Amity threw a fireball, and then another one, and then frost shards and thorns, and each spell came out worse and worse. Her hands trembled as she drew the circles.

“You can’t do anything! You’re not real!” Amity shouted. It came out desperate, pitiful. It disappeared into the darkness, and she’d lost track of where it ran off to in her rage.

“Oh, Amity. We _are_ real.” It said, soft, cloying. The voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere. Amity wanted to curl up and muffle her ears. “We exist outside of this coliseum, you know.”

“You’re not them!” She howled, and she shot another misshapen fireball into the darkness, “They- they can’t! They won’t, they already made me lose Willow-!”

“ _We_ made you?” It said. It pulled out from the floor in front of the fireball, and her father’s fingers curled around it. It disappeared in a puff of smoke, and Amity was suddenly aware that she’d spent most of her magic already.

Slowly, cruelly, it approached her, a mad smile on its face. Amity tried to backed up, but it must’ve distorted things somehow, because it was quickly approaching her.

“Amity, dear. _You_ did that. You _abandoned_ her.”

“I- I didn’t.” She desperate drew up another circle, and her mother’s hands swatted it away, the same way she did at home when her spells weren’t satisfactory. They towered over her.

“And aren’t you glad? You don’t need her. You don’t need any of those pathetic witches at school. You have your family.” It’s voice became distorted. It grabbed her hand with its own, “You have _us_.”

“I- I don’t want-!” She stopped. It made no addition movement. It’s eyes stayed focused, not on her, but on some place in the distance behind her. She giggled, then started laughing so hard she choked. Her nerves were frayed, she knew that, but that didn’t matter.

She wrung her hands out of its grip and moved away from it. Grometheus simply stared at her with the same, empty smile.

“They- they couldn’t. You’re not real, you have no more tricks to play on me, they wouldn’t-“ she swallowed thickly- “They’ve never hurt me.”

“Oh, Amity.” The said. They backed up, and Amity stood up. She’d fallen over backwards at some point, it seemed. She could- she could still defeat them- _it_ , she wouldn’t need magic or weapons-

“We would never hurt _you_ , Amity,” they said.

Edric and Emira rose out of the ground, the same empty smiles and dead eyes on their faces. She felt her heart stop.

“You’ve always been our favorite, you know.” Her father said. His hand brushed over Edric’s shoulder. “Maybe that’s why they torment you so often?”

_No._

Amity tried to run to them. Her legs felt like lead.

_No no no they wouldn’t-_

“But then,” her mother said, finger’s threading through Emira’s hair, “we’ve no need of belligerent children, do we, dear?”

Edric and Emira did little more than stand, smiling lifelessly at their sister like puppets.

“Of course not. We have Amity.”

They both drew up spell circles. Sharp, serrated daggers appeared, landing squarely in their hands. Her mother raked the sharp edge against Emira’s neck-

“No! No no no no mom, please, I’m sorry-!”

“LEAVE HER ALONE!”

Amity’s body froze, shock and horror and cold dread filling her body as they were all suddenly cut through the middle, and-

Luz. Luz holding a sword, running through them, to her-

Grometheus fell into bits and splattered everywhere, and all Amity could imagine was chunks of of her parents and siblings falling limp to the floor. Hot bile came crawling from her stomach up to her throat and she had to force it down to keep it from spewing on the floor.

The few remaining bits reformed into it’s regular, beastly shape. It bared its teeth at Luz before charging her.

Luz struck her sword into the ground. The glyph on it flared blue, and a large chunk of ice came out between the two of them, driving straight into Grometheus’ head. It roared, and fragments of marble came shaking off the walls.

It split into two, both running towards her. Luz yelped, smacked a glyph onto a nearby pillar and skewered the faster of the two, but the other one was already about to bite her head off, and- and-

An abomination reached out from right in front of Luz, grabbed it, and with slow, lumbering motions, strangled it. Sharp, feral death cries came from the pair. Eventually it faded into silence, and the abomination was all that was left.

Amity found herself, upright, clinging to the pillar by one hand. Her other was in front of her- she must’ve summoned the abomination at some point. 

“Amity!” Luz ran up to her excitedly. “That was awesome! Did you see that?”

She nodded shakily. Her breaths felt heavy.

Why did she see that? Luz, she expected, but her parents? Her siblings? Where did that come from? Why- why were they- with the knife-?

Luz looked at her strangely.

“Hey, you- are you alright?”

Amity’s legs gave out from under her, and she collapsed against the pillar.

“Amity!?”

Something was wrong. Something was wrong.

Her lungs felt like they were tightening. Her heart was going to explode. Amity desperately clawed at it, like she could fix it if she simply ripped it out. The room spun, parts of it faded in and out, and she felt like she needed to puke again. Her stomach was sinking into hell. Tears spilled out of her eyes. She tried to calm herself, tried to-

“I- I can’t-“

Her chest was collapsing in on itself. Luz kneeled at her side, tentatively reached for her with a whisper of her name, and she mindlessly grabbed her arm. She gasped, and instead of air, her lungs filled with sharp, stabbing pain-

“ _I can’t breathe_ ,” she whimpered.

Luz came closer. Amity tugged weakly at her arm, tried to speak, but all she could get out were choked sobs.

“Shhh, I’m here, it’s fine, I’m here,” she muttered softly. Luz was- was deathly serious in a way she’d never seen before, but- she was Luz, the _real_ Luz, and Amity felt the sudden need to curl up into her touch.

Amity gasped for air, tried to take in another breath, choked on air and spit. Luz peeled her hand off her arm and pulled it close to her chest. She was stroking her thumb on the back of her hand, and Amity found that focusing on that stilled her heart some.

“Amity, can you do me a favor? Breathe in slowly, ok? Could you do that for me?”

It was slow, painfully slow. She couldn’t help trembling when her body screamed for her to _breathe faster_.

“Breathe out.”

It came out shaky, but for the first time in what felt like hours, it felt like she’d managed to get some air. Luz gave her a reassuring smile.

“That was good. Keep doing that.”

Amity hated, _hated_ that she couldn’t fucking breathe without help, but eventually her breaths evened out, and the pain faded to a dull ache. Her heart was still racing, but it didn’t feel like it was going to literally burst out of her ribs. Luz was talking all the while, something about Grom and Amity doing really well, and she nodded and tried to force a smile when it felt necessary, but none of it registered in her mind.

“Do you want to go somewhere?” Luz finally asked.

The room had stopped moving at some point. Amity looked around. It felt like it was folding in on itself, ensnaring them, and Amity nodded before she thought any further of it.

Luz walked with her. They didn’t seem to have any destination in mind besides getting as far away from the school as possible. Neither of them spoke. Amity was staring at the ground the whole time, gripping at Luz for support. She was still thinking about breathing, and some awful part of her brain insisted the pain would come back if she stopped.

“Hey.”

Amity looked around for the first time since they’d left the school. They’d somehow ended up at a nearby cliff overseeing the ocean. The school was off in the distance, still burning. Amity couldn’t tell if it was real, and a part of her hoped it was. Her head still felt like it was underwater, but otherwise, she felt normal again.

“You alright now?” Luz asked. Amity wanted to say something, but she struggled for words. What was she supposed to say? ‘Thank you, you saved my life’? After everything, that felt inadequate. Amity tried to run through everything that had happened that day- she’d been selected as Grom queen, Luz set the school on fire, it almost killed her, Luz saved her-

Luz _saved_ her.

 _Luz saw her parents_.

Amity grabbed her by the shoulders. “Luz. Luz, how much did you see?”

“Huh? Oh, I-I didn’t see anything.” She sputtered, along with a nervous laugh. Amity felt a rush of panic.

“Luz, I’m serious, I- you can’t- they-!”

Luz sighed.

“I... I saw Edric and Emira. I swear I didn’t see anything else,” she said. Luz was one of those people who couldn’t lie to save her life, and this was just so painfully earnest. Amity sighed, and it finally felt like the whole thing was over.

“...Luz.”

“Hmm?”

“I- I’m glad you didn’t go.”

“What?” Then it hit her. “Oh.”

Amity looked off to the side. Luz wrapped her arms around her and pulled her closer. It was strangely comforting.

“I wish I did.” She muttered into her shoulder. Amity jolted.

“Luz?” There was no reply. “Luz, no-“

“I could’ve done something. I should’ve checked sooner, I-“

“I’m really glad you didn’t.” Amity said with a forced chuckle. Luz was quiet.

“...I’m sorry.”

“What?” Amity pulled back, and Luz’s arms fell to her side. She genuinely looked remorseful. “Luz, I should be thanking you. I don’t know what I’d do if- if everyone saw that-“

“ _You_ shouldn’t have seen that,” Luz replied. “They shouldn’t be making any of us do this.”

Amity said nothing in response, and Luz simply let the conversation drop. Luz arms still laid on her shoulders. Amity placed her hands around them.

“Hey, this is supposed to be a dance, right?” Luz finally said after a while. “Do you want to dance with me?”

This day could not have gotten more insane if Amity had written it up herself.

“Really?”

“Well, I guess Grom isn’t actually happening, since I set the school on fire and all that, but... yeah!” She backed up and held out her hand.

“Amity Blight, may I have this dance?”

It was absurd; the school was burning behind them, and here was the Grom queen, dancing on a cliff with a human.

Amity laughed.

“Of course.” She took her hand.

When Luz said ‘dance’, Amity was thinking something along the lines of light, methodical movements. Luz clearly had other plans, because the second her hand was on her shoulder, she immediately spun her around, and Amity followed through with an unnatural anticipation.

They moved together to the sound of the ocean crashing against the rocks. It was frenetic, quick, both of them barely keeping in lockstep with the other. Luz was eagerly throwing in twirls and spins, and Amity went along with unexpected ease.

An imaginary metronome played over her head, and Luz seemed to hear it too, because she moved in tandem with the accelerandos and ritardandos, phrases Amity was somehow certain Luz had never suffered hearing in her life. Wind rushed against her ears, muffling the giddy laughter filling the air from both of them.

Luz tripped on her feet, which was maybe the most in-character thing she’d ever done. She fell backwards, pulling Amity down with her, and neither of them cared that they were covered in dirt and abomination goo and scrapes and bruises because that was the happiest they’d been all day. Amity finally stopped laughing after a minute, as did Luz.

Ah. She was on top of her.

Amity’s face went red, but Luz seemed completely unperturbed.

“Aw, your hair’s a mess,” she said. Luz sat up so she was just a bit higher than her. Her hands reached over to Amity’s head. She was trying to pat down her hair, but then Amity felt it falling from its ponytail.

“Oh, whoops.” Luz pulled her hand back, and Amity noticed she had her hair tie in her hand. “My bad. Here, turn around.”

Amity reacted after a beat. She sat down, back facing Luz, one knee pressed to her chest and her other leg flat on the ground. Luz moved closer behind her. Her fingers threaded through Amity’s hair. She felt her gingerly pulling it back from her face.

“Amity.”

“Hmm?”

“Can we...?” She sighed, “I know you probably don’t want to, but can we talk about what happened earlier?”

Oh.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” she said defensively, “I... I couldn’t defeat Grom.”

“Not that. The- after-“

“What about it?” She snapped. Amity noticed that she’d pressed in on herself, and forced she forced her body to relax. Luz didn’t respond for a long time, and Amity worried that maybe she shouldn’t have said it like that, but then-

“Amity, that wasn’t your fault. You can’t control how you react to things sometimes,” Luz said it rhythmically, like she’d been running over the words first. It finally occurred to Amity that she wasn’t the first person to hear them. “But there’s nothing wrong with you. You didn’t mess up somehow. I don’t think less of you for having seen you have a panic attack. You’re incredibly brave, and you got through it really well.”

She left her at that. Amity couldn’t think about anything except that Luz had somehow put a name to it, and convinced her with the same breath that she was still fine regardless, and didn’t that just make everything so much better?

Amity hated owing people, or needing help, but this was Luz, and she’d done so much for her in a single day.

“You really are my fearless champion,” Amity mumbled.

“I don’t think so.” Luz laughed nervously. “I... I thought I could’ve won, if I’d volunteered, but...” she trailed off for a second, “It’s worse than either of us imagined, isn’t it?”

Amity didn’t have anything to say. It _was_ worse, and she could hardly think of Luz being in the same position without feeling like someone was ripping at her heartstrings.

“You’re braver than you think,” Luz said. She put her arms back down on her lap. Amity noticed that she’d finished redoing her hair for her. “You faced your worst fear, and you decided you wouldn’t have changed anything if it meant I didn’t have to.”

“I’m really proud to be your friend.”

Something warm burned through her chest. Amity nodded slowly.

“...me too.”

Luz did little else than stare out at the ocean and stars. Exhaustion was finally catching up to them. She’d have to go home soon, as would Luz, but for now, she leaned back against her and closed her eyes. Amity hadn’t had a quiet moment all day, and there wasn’t a single other person she rather spend this one with.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow you read the entire thing! Or you scrolled through to see if there were any good parts.
> 
> Uhhh totally up to your discretion if Amity’s parents actually do threaten her siblings to keep her in line or if Grom just decided that since he can’t win on account of physical strength he’s just going to dial the Psychological Warfare all the way up, or it’s a mix of both, unless Dana makes one of these canon ig which uhhh 😳 
> 
> I’ve always wanted to write a nightmare sequence for some reason, but I’ve never had a proper opportunity to? This came out relatively fast for something written by me so I’m going to say it’s bc of that
> 
> Was thinking of Camila the entire time I was writing Luz tying up Amity’s hair.
> 
> It occurred to me while I was writing this that 1. They probably make a student fight Grom on the assumption that their worst fear can’t be worse that anything a grown, capable witch could come up with, thus limiting its power, and 2. They probably don’t allow multiple students to face it on a regular basis because then its power would generally grow faster than the students’ capability to defeat it. 
> 
> If you see the writing style changing between every time I worked on this no you don’t ☺️


End file.
